Jerusalem seethes with clashes between Jews, Arabs
The week has been violent in Jerusalem with both Israeli Jews and Arabs reportedly attacking each other in well documented incidents.
Several violent incidents between Jews and Arabs have rocked Jaffa and Jerusalem over the past week.
Seven brawls between Jews and Arabs were reported yesterday, April 20, on Jerusalem's central Jaffa Street, near the Nablus Gate in east Jerusalem and in the Jewish Kiryat Yovel neighborhood. In another incident, a video recorded yesterday showed several Israeli Jews, some of them ultra-Orthodox, surrounding and cursing two Arabs in a car in the center of the city. At some point, one of the Arabs was sprayed with pepper spray while passers-by chanted, "death to the Arabs."
Also yesterday, a 17-year-old Palestinian from east Jerusalem was arrested on suspicion of attacking two ultra-Orthodox boys on the Jerusalem light rail last week. A video of the incident posted on social media showed a man knocking the glasses off one of the teenagers and slapping the other in an apparently unprovoked assault.
Clashes have erupted in Jerusalem with the beginning of Ramadan last week, mostly in the environs of two entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem, the Damascus Gate and Herod’s Gate. Clashes reportedly broke out when police officers stopped dozens of young Muslims from sitting on the ancient steps at the entrance to Damascus Gate. Other incidents were reported in the evening, after Iftar dinners, when young Muslims on their way to the Temple Mount compound threw stones and shot fireworks at police officers.
